Hot Topics:

Rocker Kip Winger returns to roots

Dickens Opera House show is Sept. 23

By Quentin YoungLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
09/16/2011 08:00:00 AM MDT

Kip Winger

In the ballet suite "Ghosts," the composer creates an introspective tone where the orchestra follows meandering melodies only occasionally diverted to more bracing passages. He takes the 21st century listener on a ride of 20th century romanticism that in aesthetic mood straddles the here and the hereafter.

Contrast this work to a toss-away pop hit from the 1980s, "Seventeen," in which quintessential hair band Winger sings lines such as, "She's only 17/Daddy says she's too young, but she's old enough for me!" Not quite the same tone.

These two works share the improbable fact of being brought to us by the same person, Kip Winger. More than two decades ago, Winger flew into the country's MTV-watching consciousness with his salon-worthy locks, safari guide looks and aerodynamic leather pants. His band had a string of screen-ready pop metal hits. Since then Kip Winger has studied classical composition, and The Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Ballet have performed his works.

Winger, now 50, has expanded into wider musical territory, but he still rocks out. He's scheduled to perform a solo show Sept. 23 at Dickens Opera House. The set will include Winger hits plus some of Kip's solo material, he said.

"It's loud and raucous," he said during an interview he gave by phone last week from his home in Nashville. "It's a rock show."

Winger has had a connection to the classical arts from early in his career. A product of Colorado, he started taking ballet at 16, when he was a student at Golden High School. Two years later he was dancing with a local company. At the same time, along with two brothers and a friend, he was in a band that was jamming Van Halen hits in Denver clubs. Winger pointed out that Van Halen's David Lee Roth took dance, and he said he thought ballet would help his rock performance.

At 21, he moved to New York and waited tables for three years before he was hired to play bass in Alice Cooper's band. Winger's self-titled album was released in 1988 and went platinum, and the band continued to earn commercial success until grunge edged out its brand of rock in the mid-1990s.

Winger was emblematic for a kind of music that was criticized for being manufactured for the market, and it was famously ridiculed on the cartoon "Beavis and Butt-Head." Kip Winger says this image of the band is misinformed.

What: Kip Winger in a solo performance, with special guest Last Men on Earth

"Nobody was telling us what to do," he said. All the hair, ripped shirts and leather? Winger said he looked at bands like Def Leppard and decided that was the style to shoot for, but it wasn't some corporate handler who told him to do so. Aside from some "lame" lyrics on the band's first two albums, the music should speak for itself, he said. "We were great musicians." Not to mention, he added, "We had a lot of fun, man."

After disbanding in 1994, Winger has reunited occasionally to make records and perform. Its most recent album, "Karma," came out in 2009. "It was probably our best record," Winger said.

Meanwhile, Kip Winger began studying with figures of the classical world, such as Richard Danielpour and Edgar Grana, and honing his mastery of classical composition. He said the classical musicians he's worked with are mostly receptive to his compositions. Of those who might doubt his abilities, he said, "Once they see my scores they say, 'He totally knows what he's doing.'"

His rock reputation precedes him when he walks into a room full of violinists and cellists, he said, but he doesn't try to erase his head-banging side, and it seems he enjoys spreading a little rock 'n' roll attitude with the classical crowd.

"In my mind, there's a rock star in everybody," he said.

Earlier on the day of the interview, Winger had just completed his second orchestral piece. It was a four-movement, 51-part work meant for ballet. He had put a year and a half's worth of effort into it. He sounded both elated and relieved.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story